Family Always Knows
by AnimeAlexis
Summary: ON HIATUS. In all my life I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you.' A look at Season 6 from Chris' point of view.
1. The Power of Three Blondes

**Disclaimer:** I never have, nor ever will, own Charmed.

**Summary:** How do you think Chris figured out that the three blondes were only pretending to be his mom and aunts?

Chris orbed into the Manor's conservatory, extremely puzzled. Two blue gremlins had just come up to him out of nowhere and tried to talk to him. All he could make out was his Aunt Paige's name over and over. It confused the hell out of him, so he decided to go straight to the source of the problem and ask Paige herself.

"You wouldn't happen to know any gremlins, would you?" he asked the blonde to his left. He whirled as another voice spoke from his other side.

"Uh, it's about time." A reddie-blonde haired woman admonished him.

**"**Chris, thank god. Look at them, look at them, they're impostors. They stole..." Another woman, with short brown hair, looked at him as if she was relieved to see him. He cut her off, wondering why she looked familiar.

**"**Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Who are you?" he asked the short-haired woman. His mother gasped from behind him, and he turned to face her.

**"**They're witches. They're the ones that killed that guy across the street." She said, a smug grin Chris had never seen before on her face. The last of the other three crazy women contradicted her.

**"**No, Chris, she's lying. Remember this morning when you said something was gonna happen to the book? Well, this is it. It's happening now." His Aunt Phoebe sighed impatiently.

**"**Ugh, enough of this. Piper, blast them." He ignored her and leant over towards the last woman. Why did she look so familiar?

"How do you know what I said to Piper?" he asked her. The back of his brain was trying to tell him something, but he ignored it.

'_One problem at a time!'_ he told it. The first woman spoke again, in an earnest tone.

**"**Because she is Piper. And I'm Paige and this is Phoebe. And they cast an identity spell to make the entire world think they're us." She glared at the Charmed Ones, and for a second she looked so wronged Chris almost believed it.

**"**That's ridiculous. Everyone knows the Charmed Ones are blonde." His Aunt Paige protested. The imposters on the other side of Chris looked disgusted.

Chris himself felt uneasy at the comment. That couldn't be right. Everyone always maintained that although Wyatt had his father's blonde hair, Chris had inherited their mother's dark brown, just like his younger sister Melinda. He shook it off as his mom spoke again.

"If you're Piper, then show me your powers, blast me." She challenged, the smirk still in place. The brown haired woman, 'Piper?' looked frustrated at this.

**"**I can't, you stole them." She accused.

**"**Okay, so we stole your identities and your powers. Wow, we must be good." His mom bragged. Wait, bragged? "Definitely worth more than a paragraph." She hissed aside to her sisters.

**"**Oh, yeah." Paige nodded, grinning.

**"**It's time to take care of you witches and your delusions." The blonde Piper declared. She held out her hand to blow them up.

**"**Wait!" the redheaded Paige cried. "Wait. I can prove that we're telling the truth. I can still orb, I'm half Whitelighter."

**"**Okay, go for it." Chris challenged her, wanting to see how they'd pull it off. The woman tried to orb. She closed her eyes and focused, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes, shook herself out, and tried again. Chris could hear his mom and aunts conferring behind him, but he wasn't listening. He shook his head at the redhead, kind of disappointed.

'_You'd have thought they'd have used some kind of spell or potion to help them.' _He thought.

"Go ahead, Piper, blast away." He told his mother. If these people weren't crazy and really had murdered the guy across the street, then they deserved to be blown up. The voice at the back of his head was still trying to tell him something, but once again he ignored it.

Piper tried to blow the impostors up but missed and hit the window instead. Chris ducked on reflex.

'_What the hell?_' he thought_. 'Did she just_ miss_!' _Apparently the short-haired woman agreed with him.

**"**She missed, Chris, when have you ever known Piper to miss?" Blonde Piper was quick to defend herself. She looked at him, panicked.

"Even I'm entitled to a bad day." She protested.

"Come on, try again." Paige hissed. The woman Chris had been thinking of as his mother held her hand out in an odd fashion. Aiming for the other women again, she blew up a pot plant.

"Uh, Chris, a little help here." The redhead Paige called.

"Oh, you know what? She's getting angry. And our powers don't work so good when we're angry." The woman with the long brown hair said, trying to wind blonde Piper up. It was a trick Chris had seen his mother use many times, trying to get demons so riled up they became careless. He stared at her for a few seconds, then back at blonde Piper. The brown haired one looked so much like him…it couldn't be coincidence. And it couldn't be trickery, because if the brown and red haired women were the real Charmed Ones, they hadn't a clue who Chris was.

"We've got them now." Blonde Phoebe said, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her sister couldn't aim to save her life.

"Yeah, you've got us now so why don't you blow us up?" The woman who looked so much like Chris taunted.

'_Oh, God, this is doing my head in.'_ he despaired silently, eyes flicking back and forth between the two sets of Charmed sisters.

"Piper, death bad, life good." The short haired woman reminded her sister. The youngest of the three was quick to reassure her.

"Don't worry, this bimbo couldn't hit the broadside of a beauty parlour. Check out that dye job." She mocked. The women Chris was fast realising were _not_ his family gasped. Chris winced.

'_Ooh, falling for Aunt Paige's bait. Never a good thing.'_ He thought to himself. _'Wait, Aunt Paige? Then I'm accepting these strangers as my mother and aunts?'_ There was a quick mental battle between his memories and the spell, and the memories won. Well, sort of. Just because he realised the blonde women weren't the Halliwells didn't mean that his brain accepted the false Power of Three as false.

"How dare you!" Fake Phoebe yelled. Her sister blew up the doors of the conservatory.

"Run!" shouted the woman Chris now accepted was probably his mother. She pushed her two younger sisters ahead of her out the doors.

'_Putting their safety first.'_ Chris noted.

"After them!" cried the other Piper. She and her sisters pushed past each other trying to get through the wrecked conservatory doors first. Eventually, they managed to all make it out, leaving Chris alone in the conservatory to think.

'_Mom's going to be furious at this mess later.'_ He winced. _'Ok, so what to do?'_ The answer was simple really. Ever since the morning, all the younger blonde sisters had done when they were in his presence was flirt with him. And the woman pretending to be his mother _('My mother! She tried to get rid of my family!')_ had insisted that as their Whitelighter, Chris was off limits. So all he needed to do was pretend he was with one of them. Pretend that one of the two had disobeyed their older sister. Then they'd probably start raging furiously at each other and hopefully break the spell.

'_It will work. It has to. They hate each other, so they'll start fighting at the least thing.'_ He convinced himself. Without waiting to let doubts take root, he orbed upstairs to the attic.

* * *

He orbed into the attic, and looked around to see Phoebe and Paige frozen by the door, and Piper motionless behind the arm of the couch. He steeled himself and walked over to the Blonde 'Phoebe'.

"You did it. Nice work, babe." He leaned over and started kissing her passionately, ignoring the voices in his head. The one reminding him that he was engaged, and the one screaming at him that kissing his aunt was oh, so wrong.

'_Shut up. She's not Aunt Phoebe, and it's for the good of my family. I have to do it.' _Mercifully, thankfully, the kiss was interrupted by the petulant whining of the youngest fake.

**"**This is not fair! First, I get ripped off in the power department, then you bag the bartender, and the boyfriend lays diamonds on you. That Whitelighter belongs to me." She screamed, pointing at Chris quite violently.

'_Wow.' _Chris marvelled. _'She's such a baby. How the hell did I _ever _think she was Aunt Paige?'_

**"**Ow, my head." Fake Phoebe complained.

'_And she's not much better.'_ Chris thought amusedly.

"You know, you really need to learn to control your emotions. I can't help it if Chris chose me." She replied, primping her hair.

**"**Did you sleep with him?" Fake Paige demanded.

'_Ah, another chance to stir things up.'_ Chris thought gleefully.

"Yes." He answered, at the same time as the Phoebe's denying,

**"**No!"

"You did what?" the false version of his mother shrieked. "I gave you a direct order, that Whitelighter was off limits!"

"You know what? I am sick and tired of your orders. We both are." She announced. The witch that Chris had taken to be Paige gasped.

"Stay out of my feelings." She ordered.

"Oh, are those your feelings?" The eldest blonde asked cuttingly. The blonde Paige retorted quickly.

"The hell yes those are my feelings. You boss us around like we're idiots." She affirmed. Chris resisted the urge to laugh.

'_You _are_ idiots.'_ He thought. As he did, the middle witch gasped, staring at her older sister.

"What? She thinks we are idiots." She told her younger sister, picking up on Chris' feelings and mistaking them for her sisters.

"I didn't say that." The eldest blonde protested weakly. Chris decided to chime in with an opinion.

"Yeah, but I bet she felt it. My little empath feels everything." He claimed, inwardly shuddering. He stepped backwards as "Phoebe" backed him up.

"He's right. You despise us." She told her older sister. Chris looked over at the book. The triquetra on the front was glowing.

"In fact, until I became an empath I never realised how much you truly hate us." She continued. Chris drove the nail in a little deeper.

"You know what? Come on, baby, lets go, who needs them?" he asked, grabbing "Phoebe's" arm and making to orb out. He was stopped by the woman he had taken to be his mom grabbing the middle sister's other arm and pulling her back.

'_Yes!'_ he thought, inwardly punching the air. _'It's starting to work!'_

"Oh, you're not going anywhere. We've got to stick together or our plan falls apart." She hissed at her younger sister.

"See? There you go, bossing again." "Paige" put in her opinion.

"Mm-hm." The woman holding Chris' hand agreed. But the youngest blonde wasn't finished.

"Just let the little chippy run off if that's what she wants." She tossed out the insult like she had been longing to say it for quite a while.

"Don't call me a chippy!" "Phoebe" cried, her mouth dropping open in shock. She pushed her youngest sister slightly, more to annoy her than anything else.

"Don't push me!" "Paige" shouted, looking highly affronted.

'_Though I doubt she even knows what that means.'_ Chris mused, as the young blonde pushed "Phoebe" into "Piper", almost knocking her over.

"Just shut up!" the oldest witch cried, shoving them both off of her. Behind Chris, the triquetra shivered, then split apart. The chandelier above the women's heads shuddered too, crashing to the ground.

Chris' real memories came rushing back. His mom reading him a bedtime story. Aunt Phoebe pushing him on the swings. Aunt Paige loaning him money. He looked over at the Charmed Ones as they unfroze, associating the now familiar women with each memory.

"You should be able to handle these women now." He told them confidently.

His mom got up and punched her counterpart in the face. His Aunt Paige did the same with the youngest impersonator. Phoebe walked over to the blonde still standing.

"Not the nose, please." She begged, as Chris chuckled inwardly.

"I think you have something that's mine." She said, glaring at the impostor's neck. Or specifically, the diamond necklace around it. The impostor Phoebe reached for her neck.

"Sure." She took off the necklace, handing it to Chris' aunt. "It's yours. Anything you want."

"Thank you." Phoebe said dryly. Without another word, she punched the fake's nose, knocking her out. Paige, Piper and Phoebe walked over to Chris by the Book's podium.

"I take it this was all your doing." Paige told her unknown nephew, smiling.

"Hey, you're the one who got me here." Chris replied, shrugging the praise off.

"How did you know they weren't us?" Piper queried.

'_Family always knows.'_ Chris thought, quoting one of his mom's many future

phrases. He settled for something less revealing.

"In all my life I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you." He answered, taking the Book from its stand.

"In all your life? You've only been our Whitelighter for two months." Phoebe teased him, unaware of the answer in the future-boy's head.

'_But I've been a Halliwell my whole life.'_ He thought.

"Let's just reverse the magic." He told her, looking like he was ignoring the question. He opened the book and handed it to them. He listened as they chanted the spell that would reverse the magic and return their powers to them, thanking the blue gremlins who had only been able to say "Paige", and his own demon-fighting neurosis that had made him wary of the blonde imposters.

"Powers of the witches rise,

course unseen across the skies,

come to us who call you near,

come to us and settle here."

He watched as white magical lights rose out of the blonde sisters and sank into Piper, Phoebe and Paige, making his mother and aunts the Charmed Ones once again.

**AnimeAlexis:** I know most people are busy writing about Season 8, but I still prefer 6, so I'm sticking with it for now. Review and tell me what you think please!


	2. Author Note

**AnimeAlexis:** I've been thinking about expanding this to include scenes from other Season 6 episodes, like Witchstock, Chris-crossed, and Little Monsters. If I get 5 reviews for it I will, so let me know please!


	3. My Three Witches

**Disclaimer:** I never have, nor ever will, own Charmed.

**Summary:** 'In all my life, I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you.' Chris' viewpoint on Season 6 episodes.

**Chapter 2 – My Three Witches**

Chris stood in front of a cauldron in the attic, making a vanquishing potion.

'_Ok, I'll admit. Trying to teach mom and the aunts a lesson, good idea. Handing them over to a demon – not so much.' _He thought as he tossed ingredients for the vanquishing potion in. A jingling sound grabbed his attention and he looked up as his father orbed in.

"We need to talk." Leo started, barely formed in the attic. Chris groaned inwardly.

'_Why him? Why now? I don't have time for this!'_

"Sorry, not now." He replied, brushing his father's attitude off. Leo strode over to the table.

"Oh, yeah, now." Leo snapped .He held out a green pendant. "Look familiar?"

'_Why does he have a Valkyrie's …oh. He's going to start accusing me again.'_

"I don't have time for this." He said out loud.

"You had time to kill a Valkyrie. Whitelighters don't kill, or did you not read the manual?" Leo spat.

'_Uh, he is such a hypocritical bastard. I cannot BELIEVE I am related to him.'_

"But it's alright for an Elder?" Chris pointed out the flaw in Leo's logic. "You had Valkyrie blood on your hands too."

"Fighting to protect the sisters. You went out, hunted a Valkyrie to steal her magic." Leo defended himself self-righteously.

'_And why would I need her magic? Oh, yeah. To protect the sisters.'_

"Oh, so that makes you the noble one, right?" Chris said, heavily sarcastic. Leo looked triumphantly at him, and Chris wondered what he had up his sleeve this time.

"Face it, Chris, I got you this time. This is enough to get your Whitelighter status stripped and your soul sent back down to earth for recycling."

'_Oh. That's not good.'_

"You do what you have to do." He answered, trying to conceal his shock. He continued making the potion, turning away from his father.

"I already did. I arranged a hearing with the Elders tonight. I expect this to be your last day as a Whitelighter."

'_It will be if you don't let me finish this potion so I can save mom and my aunts!' _He voiced as much to their former – and future – Whitelighter.

"That's quite possible. Excuse me." He picked up a large dropper. Leo seemed to notice, for the first time, that Chris was making a potion.

"Why are you making a vanquishing potion?" he enquired.

"To help the sisters." _'Duh!'_

"Why aren't they making it?" Leo continued. Chris hesitated for a millisecond.

"Because… they're busy." He managed. He couldn't exactly say they were fighting off their desires, could he? Across the table from him, Leo closed his eyes and – predictably – cast out his senses for his ex-wife and her sisters.

"I can't sense them." He stated after a few moments.

"Don't worry, I'm on it." Chris reassured him.

'_Please don't make this difficult. Just trust me for once, goddamnit!'_ Unfortunately, as seemed to happen a lot, Chris' luck had run out. Leo wasn't going to let it go that easily.

"You know, Chris, if I can't sense them it means they're not in this world." He replied accusingly.

'_Here we go again.' _Chris thought.

"I said I'm on it." He barked, barely keeping his temper reigned in. He headed for the door but Leo stopped him with a hand to his chest.

"Where are you going?" the Elder asked, his tone one of interrogation. Chris was starting to get exasperated.

'_He always does this! He never trusts me!'_ It wasn't just this Leo he was talking about. Even when Wyatt had been slaughtering Innocents in the future, Leo was the last person to believe Chris. It had taken the murder of half of the Halliwell children before Leo had even begun to accept the fact that his precious eldest son was evil.

"To bring them back, now lay off!" Chris said, raising his voice slightly, trying to get the message across to his father that this problem was urgent and his behaviour wasn't helping matters.

"Until I find out what's going on, I'm not gonna let you out of my sight." Leo hissed, and Chris just about resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"You don't trust me. Fine, I get it. But get this, if I don't show up where I'm supposed to be alone, they'll die. Your call." Leo said nothing, and satisfied, Chris orbed out.

Thoughts of his annoying father still roamed his mind as he reappeared in Gith's cavern. The lower level demon was standing beside the vision pool, looking baffled.

"Something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"The boyfriend took the bullet. It was meant for the witch." Gith explained. Chris glanced at him, shock obvious on his face.

"You tried to kill one of them already?" he demanded.

'_This is not good. He's not supposed to kill them while I'm not here to save them!'_ He tried to tune in as his 'ally' explained the nature of the pocket realms to him.

"I create worlds, I don't control them. They work in their own way, in their own time. This is the first time a victim's ever escaped a direct attempt on her life."

'_Huh. Go Aunt Phoebe.'_

"Yeah, well, pretty good, aren't they?" he commented casually. The demon exhaled quietly.

"It's okay. Their desires will kill them eventually. After all, that is what you desire, isn't it?" he replied, turning and walking a few steps away from Chris.

"Actually..."

'_Now that you mention it, not. That's not what I had in mind.' _He whipped the vanquishing potion from his pocket. A crossbow materialised in Gith's hand. Chris went to throw the potion but Gith shot him with the crossbow, hitting him in the stomach. Chris fell to the ground and dropped the potion.

'_Shit. He knows.'_ He managed to think, before the pain set in. The poison fired through his veins, sending agonising pains through his stomach and around his body.

"I could sense your desire from the beginning!" Gith was taunting him. "You never wanted to kill your charges, just teach them a lesson. That's right, Darklighter arrow." Gith smashed the potion with his foot.

"Poison shouldn't take long but with luck, you may just live long enough to watch the Charmed Ones learn their lesson after all."

Sometime later, Chris lay on a pile of rags in the cave, straining to listen to what was happening to his aunts.

"We're gonna get you out of here." He heard his aunt Phoebe assure her boyfriend Jason.

"An empath!" Gith fumed. "You didn't tell me the middle sister was an empath."

"Sorry." Chris replied, trying to muster some form of sarcasm. It wasn't working very well, he could hear Gith lecturing him, ignoring his comment.

"She must have been feeling his desire when I created her world. It's no matter, my worlds always kill their victims." He sounded so offhand that Chris was ready to forgo a vanquishing potion and kill him with his bare hands. If only he could get up. This was his _family_ the demon was gloating about. Inwardly he berated himself.

'_It's your fault they're in this mess, you know.' _He told himself. _'Next time you have a problem with their methods, just tell them.'_ He knew it probably wouldn't work, though. He had tried so many times before that their indifference towards demons was going to get them killed someday. Was it his fault they couldn't care less about his future knowledge – unless it was to find out every detail about their future children and lives, of course. Gith was still speaking, and Chris half-listened as his thoughts rambled.

"You know why? Because desires are empty. They lack foundation. This world will fall too, it's only a matter of time." Phoebe and Jason started speaking again in Jason's world.

"I'm getting thirsty." Jason told the witch supporting him, no doubt feeling a pain similar to Chris' at that moment. His aunt replied quietly.

"Okay, I'll try see if I can find something." Acting purely on impulse, Chris telekinetically phased the world she was in into Paige's all magic world.

'_Two sisters are better than one, right?'_ he contemplated.

"No!" Gith yelled. He kicked a foot at Chris' face and the witchlighter blacked out. When the room came into focus again, Paige and Phoebe were trying to find his mother.

"How are we gonna find Piper?" Phoebe's voice floated over to where he lay.

"I don't know, maybe try feeling her? The demon created these worlds by using our emotions, right? I don't know, maybe use him as a conduit to tap into our feelings." Paige replied.

"Okay, it's worth a shot." Phoebe rationalised. She must have tried to sense for her as Paige quickly questioned

"Are you getting anything?"

"No, I'm smelling something." His other aunt replied. She sneezed, at least Chris presumed she sneezed. He couldn't see from his viewpoint on the floor. A whistle startled him.

'_Why are they whistling? What's the point in that?'_

"Bless you." Paige told her older sister.

"Thanks." Phoebe said gratefully.

"Okay, try again." Paige hastened her. Suddenly, Chris heard the unmistakable sound of fireballs hitting against something. He tensed up, wondering what was happening. He heard something metal shaking, and hoped that his aunts were ok. He _really _wanted his cousins to be born. Even though technically, Warren was already.

"Are you okay?" Paige asked.

**'_She's not breathless.'_ He noted._ 'Not breathless is good. It means she's not dodging demons, or breathing her last words. Although, Phoebe could be.'_ He realised. He relaxed a second later when his other aunt spoke up.**

"I feel her. She's really scared and she needs our help."

'_Who does? Mom?'_

"These worlds were fuelled by our desires, right? Well, our desire is to find her." Paige observed.

'_That's good. That's the right track, especially considering I can't move anymore, so I can't help.'_

"Okay, so maybe our combined desires can actually bring us to her, right?" Phoebe mused.

"Yeah." Paige agreed.

"Uh, try to focus, focus, focus." Phoebe said, as more shaking sounds reached Chris ears.

"You've ruined everything. Now they'll find the oldest sister and come for me. Unless I get to her first." Gith seethed. He pulled out a knife and disappeared into Piper's world.

"No!" Chris yelled, straining to get up. The effort cost him the last of his strength and he sank into darkness again.

"How is he?" he heard Paige asking. He wondered briefly why she sounded so much nearer now. Slowly, the pain faded and he realised someone was healing him. He opened his eyes to see his mother and aunts standing around him, Piper holding his older/younger brother in her arms. He saw Leo step back, and propped himself up against the cavern wall.

"Easy, now." His mother reprimanded. "We almost lost you there for a second."

"You're all alright." He replied, relieved. "I'm sorry."

"For trying to save us?" Phoebe laughed. "It's ok."

"Just try not to get shot at next time." Leo told him. Chris nodded.

"Ok."

That evening, Chris knocked at the door of Piper's bedroom. He put his head around the door to see his father healing his mother's hand.

"Hey." He greeted, walking in.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" his mother asked politely.

"Better. Thanks." He turned his attention to his father. "So it's almost time for my hearing with the Elders. I thought I'd give you the pleasure of taking me in personally." He was quite proud of himself for how normally that came out. No undercurrents of bitterness or disappointment running through the offer.

"Yeah, well, maybe I'll just give you this instead." Leo replied, holding out the Valkyrie pendant. Chris glanced at it.

"I don't understand." He stated, looking at Leo.

"Neither do I." the Elder sighed. "Just take it before I change my mind." He gave Chris the pendant and left for the nursery. Chris looked at his mom and smiled in relief.

"Thanks for trying to warn us about the demon. We should have listened to you in the first place." She said gratefully.

'_Sure. Because it wasn't my fault in the first place.'_ He felt like the parent as he spoke his next words to Piper.

"Well, as long as you learn something at the end of the day, that's all that matters, right?" His mother grinned, and Chris wondered for a second if she felt the same role reversal he did.

"Right." She replied, acknowledging the lesson.

**AnimeAlexis:** Due to my lovely reviewers, who gave me more than twice the reviews I asked for, I'm continuing this! Review and tell me what you think please!


	4. Little Monsters

**Disclaimer:** I never have, nor ever will, own Charmed.

**Summary:** 'In all my life, I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you.' Chris' viewpoint on Season 6 episodes.

**Chapter 3 – Little Monsters**

Chris orbed to the top of the Golden Gate bridge, severely annoyed with his father for being so hard to find.

"Leo, I have been looking everywhere for you!" He said angrily. "What are you doing up here?" he asked confusedly.

"Communing with the others." Leo answered, eyes closed.

'_I doubt you can get cell phone reception up here, so he must be talking about the Elders.'_ Chris thought sarcastically. He looked over the ledge doubtfully.

"Can anyone see us?" he questioned his father. Leo grinned.

"Not me." He replied. "But you look like a lunatic standing up here talking to yourself. What do you want?"

'_How do you get the attention of an annoying Elder? Remind him of his wife, who he left behind to become said Elder.'_

"It's about Piper." Chris hinted. Immediately, Leo's eyes snapped open.

"Is she alright?" he asked anxiously.

'_Bingo.'_

"Yeah, she's fine, don't worry." Chris assured him. Leo looked relieved until Chris spoke again. "It's Wyatt I'm worried about."

"Why? What happened?" the Elder asked.

"Well, nothing yet." Chris admitted. "Just out of curiosity, what's the Elders policy on vanquishing demon babies?"

"Why?" Chris shrugged before he answered.

"No reason. There's just one playing with Wyatt in his playpen as we speak."

"What? How? Why?" Leo demanded.

"Ask your wife." Chris replied. Leo looked at him suspiciously for a minute then orbed out without a word. Chris rolled his eyes, inwardly pleased.

'_Maybe the sisters will listen to Leo and not let his elder brother have a demon for a playmate. Lord knows he has enough lackeys already.'_ Chris thought, orbing after his father. He caught up with him close to the Manor and they appeared in the attic almost simultaneously.

"Hey." Chris greeted his aunts in a normal voice. He was immediately set on by Paige.

"Shh, shh, keep it down, don't wake the baby. Trust me."

'_Trust me? Nothing good ever comes out of "trust me". When Wyatt last said it, he tried to kill one of my lieutenants!'_ Instead of telling his aunt that, he decided to take her advice.

"Where's Piper?" he whispered.

"That's a really good question." Phoebe acknowledged in the same low voice. At her comment, Leo immediately looked worried.

"Wait, she's missing?" Chris would have thought something along the lines of 'He never cared when I went missing', but it wasn't just Leo's wife they were talking about. It was his mother too.

"Did the Manticores take her?" he asked nervously.

"No, some other creature that wanted the baby." Phoebe informed him. The currently oldest Halliwell son was ready to blow his top at this.

"Damn it, you should have listened to me, you should have vanquished him when you had the chance!" he raised his voice, forgetting about the demon baby.

"Well, it's good that we didn't because we're gonna need the baby to get Piper back." Paige retorted, raising her own voice.

"You guys, shh, keep your voices down." Phoebe hissed. Paige and Chris ignored her.

"I am not convinced that that baby is inherently evil. Which means he's probably not even responsible for any of this." Paige stated her side of the argument.

'_Is it me, or is this starting to get familiar?'_ Chris wondered. It felt like they'd had this argument several times before._ 'Wait. We have. And she still won't listen!'_

"Oh, come on. Will you please talk to her?" he turned to Leo, hoping his earlier plan to get Leo to convince them would work.

"Not everyone is born morally neutral, especially not demons. They're pre-disposed to evil." Leo tried to convince his sister-in-law.

"Pre-disposed, yeah, but it doesn't mean they can't be raised to overcome it. You can't predict whether a kid is gonna be good or evil based on his genetics."

'_Huh. So she's not just saying it to annoy me. She really believes it. Comforting, if it wasn't a demon child we're discussing.'_ He relayed as much to his aunt.

"Paige, we're not talking about kids, we're talking about demons."

"No, we're talking about a demon kid who has so far played nothing but nice with Wyatt." She protested.

"Okay, you guys, this is all irrelevant. We need the baby to find Piper so let's just focus on that, shall we?" Phoebe interjected.

"She's right. Although I think I should take Wyatt just to be on the safe side." Leo suggested.

"What if the other baby wakes up?" Phoebe asked worriedly.

'_Phoebe's worried too, yet neither of them will do anything to stop this!'_

"They won't be able to follow me where I'm going." Leo said grimly. He went over to the playpen and picked his first born up.

"He's gonna scream bloody murder and call half the Manticores in the city to come save it. Maybe the beast too." Paige protested.

"We have to be prepared." Phoebe told her younger sister. She changed her focus to Leo. "Okay, go, just quietly." Chris' father and brother orbed out together. With one last exasperated glance at his aunts, Chris orbed out too.

* * *

Chris, Leo and Wyatt appeared Up There, and Chris shuddered slightly.

'_This place _always_ creeps me out. It's just way too, I don't know, white.'_ The witchlighter mused. Two Elders approached them quietly.

"Leo, Christopher." The one on the right greeted them serenely.

"Chris, actually. I prefer Chris." The brunette corrected.

"We have a small problem." Leo informed the Elders. "The sisters vanquished a Manticore today, and…" Between them, he and Chris outlined the situation.

"Hmm. An unusual situation." The Elder on the left, an older black man, acknowledged.

"Yes, Zola.(sp?) We got that. But how do we fix it?" Chris asked sarcastically.

The three Elders looked at each other, then at the Witchlighter.

"We don't know yet, Chris." Leo told him edgily.

"Great. Well, why don't you figure it out, and I'll go take Wyatt somewhere less…white." Chris proposed.

_'Though I'm sure the white is probably good for him. Calming. Not in any way evil.'_ He mused.

"No, are you crazy?" Leo retorted. "I'm not letting you near my son."

_'See, that would hurt if I hadn't heard it a million times already.'_ Chris thought. The Elder on the right put his hand on Leo's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"I think it's a good idea." He agreed with Chris. "Take him to Magic School. He'll be safe there. Gideon will make sure of that." He told Leo quietly.

"Duty calls." Chris said, holding out his arms for his brother. Leo hesitated for a few seconds, before handing Wyatt to Chris.

"I'll be back when I've dropped him at Magic School nursery." Chris promised. He orbed out, relieved to be out of the whiteness.

_'Even if I did have to carry my older, but currently younger brother to get out of there. This situation never gets any less weird.'_ He thought, looking at the blonde toddler.

"Chris. Can I help you?" Sigmund, Gideon's assistant asked.

"Yeah, actually. Can I put Wyatt in the nursery? There's a bit of a problem at the Manor and he's not safe there." Chris explained. Sigmund inclined his head and motioned for Chris and Wyatt to follow him. When Wyatt was happily stationed with some building blocks, with a warning from Chris not to orb home or to the Manticore baby, Chris orbed Up There again.

"Hey." He greeted his father and the other two Elders. "What did you decide?"

"We're going to have to ask the girls to give the baby back to the Manticores. He's their baby." Leo informed him. "Is Wyatt ok?" he asked immediately.

"He's fine, Leo. What if you can't return the baby?" Chris asked.

"The Charmed Ones will need to vanquish it." Zola said.

_'Finally. Someone who agrees that demons are demons.'_ Chris thought.

"Ok." He agreed. "So let's get back to the sisters." Leo nodded, and the two orbed out, reappearing once again in the Manor.

"We just got back to talking to the Elders and they're at an agreement. If we can't return the baby safely to the Manticores..." Leo started.

"We'll vanquish it." Chris finished.

"Talk about your moot points, people." Paige sighed, irritated.

'_That doesn't sound good.'_ Chris thought.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Well, do you notice anything missing?" Phoebe replied. All four looked towards the playpen.

"The baby?" Leo guessed.

"What happened?" Chris asked worriedly.

"The beast took him. Right after the Manticores kicked our asses." Paige grumbled.

"This is all Jason's fault." Phoebe sighed. Leo looked as confused as Chris felt.

"How's that?" he asked.

"Oh, you're a guy, you wouldn't get it." Phoebe said disgustedly.

"Wait, how are we supposed to get back Piper if we don't have the baby?" Chris interrupted, ignoring his aunt's guy-ramblings.

'_God knows I've heard enough of them from Great-Grams to last me a lifetime.'_

"Well, we're gonna try to have another little get together with the Manticores, see if we can't start some sort of deal." Paige proposed.

"If we can join forces with them to kill the beast, then they can get their baby back." Phoebe agreed.

"And we can get our sister back." Paige finished.

'_And I can get my mother back.'_ Chris thought, for once in complete agreement with the sister's plans. Leo, ever the voice of reason, pointed out the flaw in this plan.

"And what if they don't want to join forces?"

"Well, we hope we have enough of these fancy little things to go around." Paige said cheerfully, holing up a vial. Chris' eyes widened.

"No, no way, it's too risky." He protested.

'_Ok, so maybe it's not such a great plan.'_

"Well, blood is thicker than water." Phoebe argued. Chris threw up his hands in defeat as she dripped some blood on the crystal and began scrying.

"Gott'em." She said a minute later, the crystal dropping on the map.

"Good. You go get them, we'll talk to the Elders." Leo told them.

"What? And leave them here alone? No, Leo!" Chris yelled.

"You don't have a choice." Leo said harshly, taking Chris' arm and orbing out.

They reappeared on top of the Golden Gate bridge, Chris still in the middle of his protest.

"Leo, you can't just…is this the bridge? What are we doing here? I thought we were going to tell the Elders what had happened." Chris said confusedly.

"We are. Right after you tell me why exactly you are stopping all the sisters efforts to rescue Piper." Leo said.

'_He cannot be serious. He doesn't trust me. Again.'_

"I can't believe you. You're laying the blame for this on me? I was the one who got you, the one who got Wyatt to Magic School, and the one who warned the girls about the demon in the first place!" Chris shouted.

"Maybe so, but you've done everything possible to stop us getting Piper since then." Leo argued.

"Leo, I lodged _one_ disagreement. And for your information, the sisters plan _is_ way too risky. There's a thousand factors to take into consideration. I am trying to think of the safety of all four of my charges, Leo. Not just one." He noticed Leo's flinch and dug the wound in a little deeper.

"Oh, that's right. You still think they're _your_ charges. Well, get over it, Leo. They're not anymore. You _left_ them, remember? To become an _Elder_, which by the way _is_ your job. You're not their Whitelighter anymore, Leo. I am. So just get over yourself and trust me to do my job!" He orbed out without a word, reappearing Up There. After telling the Elders what was going on, he headed to Magic School to check on his brother. Somehow, being in the familiar halls where he had spent a lot of his childhood calmed him down, and by the time he reached the nursery where his brother was still playing he felt slightly guilty for lashing out at Leo.

'_After all, he's trying to do the same thing I am. Protect our family.'_ He sighed. He watched his brother showing him different building blocks with a smile on his face. After a while, he heard his mother calling Leo. Intercepting the summon that was meant for his father, he orbed down to the Manor.

"Hurry, he's dying." Piper cried, as her husband and as yet unknown son orbed in.

"Who is he?" Leo asked, going to the side of the man lying on the couch.

"The beast. Heal, heal, hurry." Phoebe pressured.

"Where's the baby?" Chris enquired, the matter at hand still uppermost on his mind.

"Manticores have him." Paige informed them. Leo started healing the former beast.

'_That's good. It worked.'_ Chris thought.

"Oh, so the plan worked?" he asked aloud.

"Yeah, a little too well." Phoebe groused.

"Yeah, now we just have to get the baby back." Paige added.

"What?" Chris exclaimed.

"Paige, will you go fill up some potion vials, please?" Piper requested, her eyes on the man on the couch.

"Yeah." Paige nodded.

"Lots of them." Piper added, calling after her baby sister as she left the room.

"What, hold up. Are you serious? You finally get rid of the demon child and now you wanna risk your lives trying to get it back?" Chris quizzed.

'_This is making no sense to me.'_ Leo finished healing the man, who sat up, protesting against Chris' comment.

"He's not a demon child. That's my son."

"How are you feeling? Are you alright?" Piper asked concernedly.

I"I can't believe I'm human again." The man smiled.

"Aren't you glad you didn't kill me now?" Piper joked.

"Not funny, I don't think that's funny." Leo put in.

'_That's the fist sensible thing he's said all day.'_

"Agreed." Chris voiced loudly.

"Oh, what, are you two on like the same team now?" Phoebe questioned them. Chris froned and let out a breath, barely noticing that his father did the exact same thing. "We're gonna get your baby back, I promise." Phoebe continued to the ex-beast.

"Do we not have a say in this?" Chris demanded of Leo.

"No, we don't. One thing you gotta learn about being their Whitelighter is once they make up their mind, that's it. Besides, I'm a father first." Leo said. Chris gave a small smile to no one.

'_Is he trying to make a point, or does he really believe it?'_ he wondered as the Charmed Ones made their plans to rescue the Manticore baby.

'_A father first, huh? Let's hope that he can stick to that when I come along.'_

**AnimeAlexis:** So what do you think? Review and tell me please! By the way, I'm replying to last chapter's anonymous reviews here, but if you don't have an account or don't want to log in and you want a reply, then leave me an email add, ok? Thanks!

Figs: Warren won't be appearing in this, sorry! If you want to see more of him, read He's Not Your Son, the link's in my profile!

Jay: Thanks for the warning, I just don't know if readers can see the update if I only _replace_ the chapter content.


	5. Chriscrossed

**Disclaimer:** I never have, nor ever will, own Charmed.

**Summary:** 'In all my life, I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you.' Chris's viewpoint on Season 6 episodes.

**Chapter 4 – Chris-crossed**

_Just the other day, we were in love._

They were in Bianca's mother's apartment. Chris recognized it easily, it had become Bianca's after her mother died and now it was a Resistance safehouse. How ironic, then, that with the one person he should feel safe, in a place that should be protected with good magic, Chris had never felt so scared.

"Just let me finish what I started. You'll feel better soon, I promise." Bianca spoke soothingly, trying to reassure him. "That's it. Easy does it. Slow breaths." She commanded, pulling her hand out of his chest. Chris glared up at her.

"What'd you do to me?" he asked, already knowing perfectly well. His powers were gone. The things he relied on the most, the things that saved him every day.

"I just saved your life." Bianca replied coldly.

"By taking away my powers?" Chris protested.

'_Bianca should know what they meant to me_.' Yet she ignored him, walking over to the wall and pulling a framed picture off. Without ceremony, she tossed it to the floor. It was scary, watching her repeat her actions that the last time had signaled hope. The hope to change.

"How are you gonna bring me back, anyway? That spell's a one-way door. It only goes backwards in time." Chris reminded her.

**"**He created a new spell because of you. One that works both ways." Bianca said, not looking over from her work.

"I'm touched." Chris said sarcastically.

"You should be. He's gone to a lot of trouble to get you back." Bianca informed him.

"Yeah, I see that." Chris said tetchily.

'_I'm his _brother_, remember? I know how bad he is at writing spells. I know how long it must have taken him to write a new one, especially when it's never been done before.'_

**"**You know, you don't have to believe me, Chris, but this really is for the best." Bianca tried to convince him. Chris felt disgusted.

'_I can't believe he managed to get to her. To convince her that his way is right.'_

"Oh, really? How's that?" he questioned. It was rhetorical, but Bianca answered anyway.

"Because this is your only chance to live. If I fail, he'll just keep sending more assassins back and all they'll have to bring home is a body." She answered urgently.

_Still joined as one, like two wings on a dove._

"Doesn't matter. There's nothing left in the future anymore, anyway." Chris commented bitterly. He dug her engagement ring out of his pocket and tossed it on the table, daring her to comment. She said nothing, but a brief look of hurt passed over her face and she picked up the ring tenderly. In that moment Chris felt some small hope return.

'_Maybe it isn't too late.' _Watching Bianca draw the triquetra, Chris couldn't help but remember when he was going back.

* * *

**In the future attic, the one that was a museum, not a family home, Bianca finished drawing the triquetra on the wall. She tossed the chalk into a nearby box and dusted off her hands.**

"**It's time." She told her new fiancé, walking to him. Chris looked at her sadly, starting towards her.**

"**I don't wanna go. I don't wanna leave you." He protested, suddenly doubting the wisdom of this mission. Going back to a past where no one new him, trying to make sure Wyatt stayed good, leaving Bianca…what if it couldn't be done? What if Wyatt could never be saved? Bianca saw his doubts and wondered how to convince him. On a flash of inspiration, she pulled her engagement ring off her finger.**

"**Here..." She gave him the ring, closing his fingers over it. "This will remind you of why we're doing this, what's waiting for you here." Chris pulled her into his arms, relishing in her closeness. Who knew when he would see her again.**

"**Just make sure you take care of the guards, okay? Then get out of here. Because if he finds you, if he knows you betrayed him, he'll kill you." Chris warned her. Bianca smiled shakily.**

"**Don't worry. I can take care of myself." She reassured him.**

_Just you and me, sure of ourselves._

**They walked over to the hologram of the Book of Shadows. Chris pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. It was Mel's spell. Although his little sister didn't approve of him going back, he knew this was her way of forgiving him, showing him she cared. Trying to steady his voice, he read the spell aloud.**

**"I call upon the ancient power, to help us in this darkest hour, let the book return to this place, claim refuge in its rightful space." The Book of Shadows appeared on its stand. "It worked." He said, only slightly amazed.**

"**The spell, find the spell." Bianca rushed him. Chris would have loved to take time to look through the Book again, to re-read its pages and remember his family, but time was one thing they didn't have. He flipped through the Book and found the spell that would take him back to the past. Taking a breath, he read the words.**

**"Hear these words, hear the rhyme, heed the hope within my mind, send me back to where I'll find, what I wish in place and time." A portal opened where the drawn triquetra was. As the young couple stood gaping at it, a demon shimmered in behind Bianca and grabbed her. "Bianca!" Chris called anxiously. The Phoenix fought him off quickly.**

_Sure of anything. As much as anyone else._

"**Go! Go!" Bianca ordered him, looking at the demon at her feet. Chris dashed into the portal.

* * *

**

In the present, Chris looked at the same shape on Bianca's apartment wall. "You really expect me to jump into this thing like before?" he shook his head in disbelief.

"Not without a fight, no." Bianca replied icily, hands on her hips.

"How can you be so cold? How can you just stand there and pretend like we never meant anything to each other." Chris cried, trying desperately to understand.

"I don't have a choice." The confrontation was making her uncomfortable, Chris could see it clearly. Except when she needed to save herself or someone else, Bianca hated fighting. This argument was rattling her.

"Bianca, please don't do this." Chris pleaded. "Don't give up on _everything_ that we fought for." She looked at the ground, then drew her eyes up to his.

"I'm not." She breathed shakily. "I'm just hoping we can find another way."

_But we're just two lost lonely people now._

_We're just two lost lonely people now._

"Ready?" she asked, steeling herself. Just as Piper, Phoebe and Paige orbed in.

"Hey, future girl." Piper called, her tone showing that she was very pissed off. Chris' mom threw a potion towards Bianca. Bianca, surprising Chris with no hesitating, threw a dagger and smashed the bottle in mid-air. She shimmered out, as Piper's reflexes froze the dagger. Bianca shimmered back in beside Piper, grabbed her athame and held it against Piper's throat.

"You were saying?" she asked, remaining motionless.

"Wow, she is good." Phoebe complimented. Paige moved towards Piper.

"Uh-uh." Bianca warned her. "I can kill her in half the time it takes you to even think about it."

"Yeah, we still have enough potion to vanquish you." Paige spat.

"Maybe." Bianca conceded. "But then you really will have to hope the power of two will do. Won't you, Paige?" At the Charmed Ones look of surprise Bianca immediately covered up her knowledge.

_Without a goodbye, the little bird in our hands,_

'_At least she remembers that telling them about the future could end up screwing it up more.'_ Chris thought, inwardly amazed that he was able to keep his cool at a time like this. "You'd be surprised what's in the history books. Now put the vials down slowly."

"Bianca, don't. Let her go and I promise I'll go with you." Chris said desperately, as Bianca pressed her blade closer to Piper's throat.

"Chris, what are you doing?" Paige looked at him in disbelief, but Chris' attention was focused on his mother.

'_Bianca wouldn't kill her. Killing her means killing me, and even if she doesn't love me, Wyatt would slice her open if she tried something that would endanger me like that.'_ He tried to tell himself. It didn't help.

"If you kill her, there won't be a future for either one of us to go back to and you know it." He told his fiancée, terrified.

"What are you talking about?" Phoebe cried, confused.

"You'll see if you live long enough." Bianca said, relaxing the athame. She stood back and took Chris' hand, walking towards the wall.

"Piper, freeze them!" Paige instructed hurriedly. The eldest Halliwell flung out her hands, looking shocked when nothing happened. Chris, for his part, felt his spirits rise again at this.

'_She didn't freeze! She must still be good!'_ he yelled inwardly in triumph. He only noticed the fact that he was supposed to have frozen himself when he saw his family's shock.

"Uh, okay, I get why she didn't freeze but why didn't he freeze?" Piper pointed out.

'_Oh shit.'_ Chris thought, making a split-second decision. _'I have to tell them.'_

_Shot into the night, took off with our plans._

"I don't- Unless he's a..." Phoebe stuttered.

"I'm a witch too?" Chris filled in. "That's right. Part witch, part Whitelighter. Just like you, Paige."

'_And just like Wyatt.'_ This thought was banished from his head as soon as it came. _'I am _nothing_ like Wyatt.'_

"You lied to us?" Paige exclaimed in shock.

"I had to. It was the only way I could get you to trust me." Chris tried to explain.

"Trust you?!" Phoebe asked, her voice showing how absurd she found this. Chris shook his head.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter anyway." He admitted. Telling them everything at the last second would make him look like a liar and a demon.

"So that's it? You're just gonna leave?" Piper asked, appalled.

"I don't have a choice!" Chris yelled. "She stripped my powers." Looking hard at his mother, he prayed she would unravel his clue.

"Looks like Leo's gonna have to fix that floorboard without me. Let's go." He told Bianca, this time praying that his fiancée _wouldn't_ figure out what he was trying to say. She mustn't have done, because all she did was wave a hand at the wall, causing the portal to open. The couple stepped through it, Chris looking over his shoulder one last time.

* * *

He expected to feel something when he went through the portal. Some feeling of coming home. A feeling of rightness that he was back in his time again. But there was nothing. The past seemed to be his home now. Chris walked forward boldly, staring six of Wyatt's demon bodyguards in the eyes. A voice Chris knew well greeted him, causing the demons to step aside.

"Welcome home, Chris." The voice said. The man standing in the shadows of the attic moved forward so his face could be clearly seen.

Hello, Wyatt." Chris said coolly. He didn't miss the fact that Bianca's grip had tightened on his arm. She was terrified. So was Chris, come to think of it.

'_You fight demons every day, yet the sight of your older brother scares the hell out of you.'_ Grimly, he reminded himself that this wasn't just any older brother. This older brother was Wyatt Matthew Halliwell. Wielder of Excalibur, prophesied Twice-Blessed child. Source of All Evil. Wyatt walked towards Chris.

"They're no threat to me." He sneered, looking Chris up and down. The demons shimmered out. "Et tu, Chris? Of all the people to betray me." Wyatt said, turning his back on his brother and walking away.

_But something so good won't go too far,_

"I didn't go back to betray you, Wyatt. I went back to save you." Chris told Wyatt's back. The older of the two Halliwells turned to scoff at him.

"Save me? From what?"

"From whatever evil it was that turned you." Chris replied determinedly. Wyatt sighed quietly.

"That's always been your problem, Chris. Stuck in the old good versus evil morass. I'm so past that. It's all about power, it's as simple as that." A spurt of anger flared through Chris.

'_This is bull. What happened to my brother, the brother I used to know?_'

"And whoever has the most power wins, is that it?" Chris said disgustedly, quoting a line. If Wyatt recognised the sarcasm laced through his voice, he ignored it.

"That's it. That's why I keep this museum intact. To remind everyone the power from which I was born and that which I possess."

'_That which WE possess.'_ A voice snaked through Chris' head.

'**_Get out of my head, Wyatt.'_** Chris replied, blocking his brother out.

"Too bad the rest of the city isn't faring as well as your little shrine here." Chris answered. Wyatt's eyes narrowed.

"You know if anyone else tried what you tried, I'd kill them on the spot. But you... I've forgiven Bianca, I can forgive you too. If you promise never cross me again." Wyatt offered.

"I think you know me better than that." Chris replied cuttingly.

"I thought you said you could talk some sense into him." Wyatt addressed Bianca. Chris cut off whatever she had been going to say.

"Leave her out of this!" he said angrily. Wyatt raised his arm and Chris started choking. In his shock, he let down the barriers in his mind as he focused on breathing.

_And if we try to be true, it may come back to our hearts._

'_Don't cross me, little brother.' _Wyatt warned Chris in his mind. Gasping, Chris nonetheless retorted, knowing Wyatt would hear him.

'**_Screw you, Wyatt. You haven't been my brother for a long time.'_** Even if Chris was no empath, he knew this would infuriate his brother.

"Pardon me?" Wyatt asked, flicking his hand to throw Chris across the room. He raised his hand again, sending Chris flying into a table before he had a chance to get up.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt him!" Bianca yelled, stalking over to Wyatt. He didn't even look her way.

"You promised you'd turn him. Just like I turned you, or at least I thought I had." Chris could swear there were traces of a complaint in the cold voice. Bianca ran over to her fiancé, kneeling beside him. It was only when she was there that Chris noticed the tears in her eyes.

"Chris, please, I didn't bring you here to die." She pleaded.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He assured her. Wyatt, looking over at them, stepped on the squeaky floorboard. "I think." He pushed himself upwards, running towards his brother yelling. Wyatt sidestepped, grabbing Chris and once again throwing him across the room, this time by force.

"Have you lost your mind?" he asked his younger brother, amused. He levitated Chris into the air, slamming him against the attic roof.

_But we're just two lost lonely people now. _

_We're just two lost lonely people now._

"I don't need you." Wyatt spat. Chris knew that the sentence was as much to convince Wyatt as it was to convince him. He focused on breaking Wyatt's telekinetic grip as his brother formed an energy ball.

'_Any last words, little brother?'_ Bianca ran behind Wyatt, thrusting her hand into his back quickly. Chris dropped, heaving relieved gasps.

"Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast. I can't hold him for long." Bianca said, her voice straining with the effort of holding Wyatt in place. Chris raced over to the squeaky floorboard and pulled it up.

'_Yes! It's here!'_ he thought, triumphantly pulling out a sheet of paper. _'Let's hope the Charmed Ones are as smart as they're meant to be.'_

"Powers of witches rise,

Come to me across the skies,

Return my magic,

Give me back,

All that was taken from the attack."

A blue light washed over Chris as he chanted. Wyatt sent his foot flying back into Bianca. Chris, staring in disbelief, saw her land, impaled, on a table leg.

"No!" he screamed. He waved his arm, using his own telekinetic power to throw Wyatt across the room. Not caring what happened to his brother, Chris rushed to Bianca's side. "Bianca. No, no, no, no." he pleaded.

'_She can't be dying. She can't. It's not fair!'_

"Haven't we been here before?" Bianca mumbled painfully. Chris smiled at her through his tears, trying to show her a brave face.

'_They've all gone. She's the last. I can't lose her too!'_ his brain told him frantically.

"Maybe we will be again." He told her, silently promising he'd fix it. He'd make the future better, make their lives better.

"Maybe." Bianca said, in a voice he recognised all too well. She was almost dead, struggling to make her last breaths.

"No." he moaned, dropping his head onto her chest. He felt her hand reach for his, placing a small round object into it. He glanced down distractedly to find her engagement ring.

_Ever since we tethered it's been you and me together and,_

_That's just how we got by_

"You can finish what we started..." she breathed, trailing off as Wyatt groaned, waking. "Hurry. Take the spell so he can't send anyone else. Go." Chris nodded and ran over to the Book of Shadows. Wyatt stood slowly, taking in the scene.

"Hear these words,

Hear the rhyme,

Heed the hope within my mind..."

Glancing over at Wyatt, he realised he was in danger. He ducked as an energy ball was sent flying towards him, but got back up quickly to finish the spell.

"Send me back to where I'll find,

What I wish in place and time."

The portal opened and Chris, sending a last glare at Wyatt and ripping the page out of the Book, dived in. He landed hard on the floor again, and a female voice startled him.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Paige asked. Chris lifted his head. The bright lights in the attic of 2003 hurt his eyes. He dropped the page to the floor, telling himself he'd pick it up later.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He stood slowly. "Nice spell." He complimented his family.

"Yeah, but we just put it in there like two seconds ago!" Phoebe protested incredulously. Leo immediately went into lecture-mode.

"Yeah, well, you see, the way time travel works..." Phoebe cut him off softly.

"Yeah, I don't wanna know, I already have a little headache. Thanks."

_We're birds of a feather, they always stick together,_

_So let's brave the weather and fly._

'_You're not the only one.'_ Chris thought, trying to ignore the pounding in his skull.

"You have some serious explaining to do, young man." Piper scolded him, and for an instant the familiar tone threw him.

"I know. Listen, I'm sorry I lied to you. I really am, but..." he tried.

"No, no buts. It's about time you tell us the truth, now." Piper instructed.

"I can't." Chris told her. "Not because I don't want to, but because there's only so much I can tell you without the future being changed too much."

"Um, isn't that your whole point? To come and change the future?" Paige said, pointing out the flaw in his logic.

"Yeah. But that was supposed to be more like a surgical strike." Chris corrected her.

"To save Wyatt." Leo said, half making it a question. Chris hesitated, picturing the monster he had just left to finish off his fiancée.

"To save Wyatt." He agreed quietly.

"What about Bianca?" Phoebe asked sympathetically, seeming to sense something missing. Again, Chris hesitated. Choking back a sob, he tried to keep his face impassive.

"Bianca won't be a threat to anyone anymore." He managed.

_Cos something so good won't go too far,_

_And if we try to be true, it may come back to our hearts._

"I'm sorry." The words coming from his aunt's mouth only vaguely registered.

"Me too." Chris said quietly. He had to change the subject before he broke down "So you guys still alright with me hanging around here?"

"Absolutely. But the next time you're in trouble you gotta tell us. Trust works both ways." Leo suggested, looking at his ex-charges. Chris nodded.

"Okay." He left the room, wanting to be alone with his thoughts. With his grief. As he passed Piper's bedroom he heard a babbling noise. He stopped to look at Wyatt in his playpen.

"If I can't save you, I swear to god I'll stop you." He promised.

'_I'll keep my promise. I'll save him. For Bianca.'_

_But we're just two lost lonely people now._

**AnimeAlexis:** That was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. I just realised that I should have said this at the start of the story, but the words mostly come from charmedscripts.tv. I just edit them when something seems wrong. The song is from Declan O'Rourke. It's called "Birds of a Feather." I don't own that either. I don't normally write songfics, but this one just fits with Chris and Bianca's story. Review please!


	6. Witchstock Part 1

**Disclaimer:** I never have, nor ever will, own Charmed.

**Summary:** 'In all my life, I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you.' Chris's viewpoint on Season 6 episodes.

Chris stood looking accusingly at Piper and Phoebe, Leo standing beside him facing his ex-wife.

"What do you mean you lost Paige?" he demanded disbelievingly. Phoebe looked sheepish.

"Well, it was really weird. I mean, one second she was here and the next second... poof." She indicated with her hands. Piper chimed in after her.

"It kind of happened after she put on a pair of Grams' boots." She informed them helpfully.

"Grams used to cast a spell on her clothes when she was younger." Leo mused thoughtfully. Phoebe looked confused, and slightly interested.

"Wait, you knew Grams when she was young?" she questioned. Chris swung his head to look at his father interestedly.

'_Guess you do learn something new every day. Mind you, in this family, that's pretty much a given.'_

"Yeah, we crossed paths once or twice when I was a young Whitelighter." Leo admitted. Chris raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"Eww." Was Piper's kind response.

'_That is so gross.' _Chris agreed inwardly. _'My father knew my grandmother twenty years before he met my mother.'_

"Well, I barely remember it." Leo smiled.

"Huh." Piper said, seeming stuck for words. Phoebe was hardly better with an echo of Piper's earlier

"Eww."

"Huh – huh." Chris' mom still seemed to be having a hard time grasping the concept that her husband knew her grandmother when she was young. Chris shook his head and tried to get things moving. They still had to rescue Paige.

"Well, if the boots did belong to your grandmother, then we better summon her from the dead. Maybe she can tell us what happened to Paige." He suggested.

"Okay, let's get the candles." Phoebe agreed, taking Piper by the arm.

"But you..." Piper said confusedly, pointing at Leo. Phoebe pulled her away, and Chris smirked, trying not to laugh out loud. This situation was weird in the way only the Halliwell family could understand.

"You know," he smiled at Leo, thumping him on the shoulder as he moved past. "I think you might have freaked her out." The Whitelighter protested, following Chris over to the table where the girls were setting up. Piper unconsciously moved to the other side, still glancing at Leo weirdly every now and again.

Chris looked at his mother anxiously. Piper was sitting at a table, looking down at her hands as Phoebe lit the candles. She was obviously beating herself up over the whole incident. He knew his instincts were dead centre when she commented,

"You know, if I hadn't taken over Paige's room, this never would've happened. This is all my fault." He wanted to reassure her it wasn't, but the only words he could come up with didn't seem right to him.

"What's done is done." He said feebly, only realising a second later that Leo had said the same thing simultaneously. He glared quizzically at his father as Leo looked back over his shoulder.

"Okay, you two really need to get a room." Phoebe declared, shaking the candle lighter at them. She put it on the table, laughing.

"Yeah." Piper echoed vehemently, as her sister started chanting.

"Hear these words,

hear my cry,

Spirit from the other side,

Come to me,

I summon thee,

Cross now the great divide."

Chris felt something cold on his foot, and looked down to see the green goo from earlier on his foot.

_'Huh.'_ He thought confusedly._ 'I thought I cleaned these shoes.'_ He peered at it closer. Was it…growing? Lights swirled around as Grams took form in the attic, and Chris suddenly realised what was happening. _'Oh, crap.' _He dimly heard Grams berating the sisters for not calling earlier, then hugging them.

"Ah, we got a problem." Piper informed her grandmother, readying herself to explain the situation.

"Well, you're not the only one." Penny interrupted her, glancing over at a Chris that was rapidly being engulfed by the demon goo. It rose up his legs and wrapped around his torso. Chris should have been finding it hard to think objectively while panicking about it, but years of being on the run and a lifetime of fighting demons meant his head was clear.

'_Magic makes it get stronger. So orbing's out. I can't risk tk'ing it either. But it's gotta have a weakness…how did they stop it the first time? Power of Three. And Paige is in the past. Great. My life just never gets easier, does it?'_

"Orb out." Leo suggested, trying to be helpful, not knowing what Chris had figured out. His son decided to enlighten him, at the same time making an extremely veiled plea for help.

"No, magic makes it grow. Summoning her spirit already gave it power." To listen to him, his family wouldn't think that he was running out of ideas.

"Oh, you must be Chris, the new Whitelighter." Grams said cheerfully, moving over to Leo and whispering something sideways at him.

'_That's right, she hasn't met me yet. What a way to make a first impression.'_

"Chris, just let me blast it." Piper was saying, with Phoebe agreeing,

"She's right. Orb." He shook his head vehemently, not wanting the thing to grow any stronger.

'_Although if it feeds on my magic, then it'll get stronger anyway.'_

"Oh, for heaven's sakes, listen to them. We'll find a way to vanquish the foul thing later." Grams interjected impatiently. He obeyed, telling himself that if he was killed then the only person who knew how to defeat it would be gone. And it wasn't because his formidable great-grandmother had told him to.

"Now." Leo ordered, as Chris vanished from sight. Piper blew up the goo, scattering it in a million pieces. Chris orbed in again, leaning over on his knees, out of breath.

"Ah, oh." Said Phoebe, looking in shock with the rest of them as the goo disappeared through the floorboards. Chris shook his head at his family.

'_This isn't over.'_ He thought.

* * *

Chris was stalking the goo. Not pausing to think how weird the sentence sounded, he and Leo followed a rumbling sound to the sitting room where an irate Penny was giving her 'men' speech. Chris rolled his eyes, mouthing along with the more familiar bits.

"All this over men. How many times have I told you? Men are utensils. You use them, wash them, and throw them in a drawer until you need them again." She ranted to her granddaughters.

"Shh. Everyone quiet." Leo hissed, effectively shutting Penny up. Chris, hearing the rumbling noise again, put his ear to the sitting room wall. The noise got louder. Closer.

"I can hear it. I think it's in the wall." He commented. The wall cracked against his ear, startling him.

"Yep, it's in the wall." Leo agreed, sitting down. Chris glared at him for a second before turning to Piper and Phoebe.

'_Way to state the obvious, Leo.'_

"Okay, we're gonna need Paige. It took the power of three to vanquish this thing in the future." He informed the two Charmed Ones.

"What? If you knew that, why didn't you tell me that in the first place?" Piper demanded.

"Because I could barely get two of you together, let alone three!" Chris argued. Phoebe glanced at him guiltily. "Besides, this thing's not that big right now and I thought two could handle it." He continued, compassion stirring for his aunt. It wasn't her fault that their lives were so scattered.

'_Maybe Grams could convince Phoebe and Paige to move back in.'_ he mused._ 'Then I wouldn't have to orb all over the place to get them when there's a demon – or five – to be vanquished.'_ The woman in question looked at him patronisingly before commenting,

"Leo, you take point. Chris here is much too green to guide my girls."

"What?" he exclaimed. "You know what? You can just stop that right..."

'_Who does she think she is? She can't just assign Whitelighter duties! The Charmed Ones are _my_ charges!'_

"Ah-ah! Quiet. It's time to give this floundering ship a rudder. Now, which boots did Paige put on?" Grams demanded, taking charge. Chris glanced at his mom. Surely she wouldn't allow her _dead_ _grandmother_ to just boss her around like that? But apparently Piper would allow it. She looked sulky at Grams' hostile takeover, but answered the question.

"Red go-go boots." Penny thought. For a second her eyes lit, and Chris thought it would be ok. Then she took a breath.

"We've got a problem."

'_Just what I didn't want to hear.'_

"Those boots took Paige back to the summer of love, which was one of the most crucial times of my life."

"What do you mean crucial?" Phoebe interrupted.

"Your grandfather, Allen, rest his soul, was a sweet man, but he lead me straight down the hippy-dippy trail." Grams admitted. Chris snorted under his breath, and Piper and Phoebe looked like they were struggling not to giggle.

"You were a flower child?" Phoebe said disbelievingly.

"Yeah, well, don't rub it in. What's important is that Allen was killed by my best friend. I didn't know it then, but she was evil. And I walked in right after it happened." She said sadly, obviously remembering the incident.

"What'd you do?" Piper asked curiously.

"Well, let's just say that my peacenik days ended fast, along with that bitch Robyn." Penny's voice was hard, and Chris winced inwardly. The 'Wrath of Penny' was infamous. "If she hadn't killed Allen..."

"You'd still be a flower child." Leo realised.

"And the Charmed Ones would be dead." Penny said darkly. She looked at her granddaughters lovingly. "I know I'm a ball buster. But it kept me alive to protect my girls from all the demons that came after them as kids. I cast my return to owner spell on a lot of clothes that summer, so..."

"So we get to go back there? We get to meet our grandfather?" Phoebe interrupted again, this time ecstatic.

"Don't make too much out of it because whatever you do, you can't change the past or tell anyone you're from the future." Penny warned her. Phoebe pouted.

"Well, why does he get to?" she asked, indicating her nephew.

"Because I know what I'm doing." Chris replied, somewhat smugly.

'_And because there was no other way.'_

"Not from where I'm standing." Penny scoffed. "I'll stay here with Leo and the newbie to contain the slime, until you can bring Paige back to vanquish it, okay? Okay, go, get dressed. You are going to the summer of love."

'_What did I do to deserve this sort of treatment?'_ Chris wondered as his bossy great-grandmother shooed her granddaughters up the stairs in front of her.

* * *

'_Not good. Not good. Not good.'_ Chris thought, trying desperately to come up with a plan to get rid of the slime. _'If only Mom and Aunt Phoebe and Paige were here. No, screw that, if only my cousins were here.'_ He stood in his older brothers room, keeping one eye on the toddler as he listened to Penny talking.

"The way I see it, we're all targets for the slime. We need a plan to control it until the girls get back." she explained.

"In the future, everyone tried to control the demon with no name. But it can't be done." Chris told her, as he had three times already.

"That's hardly a winning attitude, young man." Penny admonished him.

'_Easy for you to say.' _Chris thought. _'This is the first time you've fought it.'_

"And why in heaven's name couldn't the people in the future find some name for that thing?" Penny continued, irritated. Chris paused in his retort.

'_Why _didn't_ we think of a name for it?'_ he wondered.

"Speaking of the future, what's so awful that happens to Wyatt?" Leo interjected, no doubt hoping to catch him off-guard.

"You know I can't tell you that." Chris smirked.

"Come on, I'm an Elder." Leo wheedled. Chris shrugged at his father, turning his attention to Grams.

"Excuse me, back on point. Uh, the slime? I'm taking suggestions." She stated.

"We could orb it to an ice drift." Leo suggested. Chris thought for a second, then turned the plan down.

"Nah, that's bad." He told his father.

"It's not bad, it's awful. You can't orb that thing, it feeds on magic." Penny snapped.

_'So what, she's giving out to Leo now? This woman just doesn't quit.'_ His admiration for his great-grandmother had been going down a notch with every veiled insult she had thrown his way over the last while.

"So what's your great idea?" he asked her, trying to get her to admit she wasn't all powerful. It didn't work.

"Are you giving me lip?" Penny asked crossly. Despite himself, Chris went on the defensive.

'_Dammit, Grams! How do you and Mom do that?'_

"No." he defended himself. The part of him that was still paying attention to Wyatt saw him orb his bottle towards him in a swirl of blue lights. "No!" he repeated, yelling this time as the slime shot out of the wall. He dashed towards his brother, but Leo beat him, scooping up his eldest son in his arms as Penny headed for the door, looking for a safe route for the four. Chris and Leo dashed after her, heading down the stairs, Leo keeping Wyatt safely sheltered in his arms as the roof fell in above them.

"Hold on. I think it's stopped." Panted Leo when they reached the hallway. Chris leaned over to him, whispering hurried instructions.

"Get Wyatt out of the house. If it tries to follow, I'll fire off an orb or two to distract it." He turned to his great-grandmother challengingly, daring her to disagree with him. "You okay with that?"

"Yeah, it's just what I had in mind." Penny replied, shrugging a shoulder in a display of carelessness.

"Good." Chris said, relieved she wasn't going to fight him on this one. He pushed past Leo to follow Penny into the kitchen. He had just stepped over the threshold when he heard his father call him.

"Chris, get out here!" He dashed out, with a quick

"Stay here!" tossed at Penny. She, of course, ignored the order and followed him out into the hallway.

"It's blocked us in." Chris realised, seeing the slime covering the front door. Leo dashed into the sitting room, trying to find an exit that wasn't magically sealed off. He was unsuccessful. A nagging thought tore into Chris' head, but he ignored it.

'_What are we going to do?'_ He followed Leo back to the kitchen, wondering absently where his not so distant ancestor had disappeared to.

"What'd it do? Split in half?" Leo asked over his shoulder. Chris was more worried about the probability of them getting out of the house alive thwn the technicalities of the demon goop.

"How do we get out?" he demanded, watching the slime crawl up the windows. His father looked unsure.

"I don't know. Orb?" he suggested, clearly not thinking it through.

'_Great. The one time I actually ask him for advice, and this is what he comes up with. See, this is why I don't talk to him.'_ He sighed mentally, remembering all the times people had pushed him to make up with his father.

"The last time I orbed, that thing almost swallowed me whole." He pointed out, stifling a shudder at the memory.

'_Cold. Very, very cold.' _He remembered.

"What do you think, Penny?" Leo asked, turning for advice to the Halliwell matriarch. Chris looked over at her, following Leo's gaze. His jaw dropped.

'_Oh, God. What has Aunt Paige done now?'_

**AnimeAlexis:** Damn, just when I'm getting to the interesting part. This chapter has turned out WAY too long. I'll update the rest as soon as I can, I might have more time to write now that show is over and Christmas hols are coming up soon, so you never know! Please review, they make my day!!


	7. Witchstock part 2

**Disclaimer:** I never have, nor ever will, own Charmed.

**Summary:** 'In all my life, I have never seen you take the bait the way that witch took it from you.' Chris' viewpoint on Season 6 episodes.

**Chapter 6 – Witchstock part 2**

Grams stood in the doorway wearing tie-dyed sixties clothes.

_'Oh no. No. no, no. This isn't good at all.' _Chris thought as Penny started speaking.

"I think love conquers all. I think that we should take the demon into our arms and make it feel safe." Chris looked towards his father, catching his eye just as Leo looked back.

"Leo, could I talk to you for a second, please?" Chris asked, eyeing his great-grandmother carefully. He racked his brains, examining his own memories to confirm what he already knew.

'_They've changed the past.'_ Dimly, he heard Leo protesting that his brother's name was Wyatt while he thought about the situation.

'_Ok, so what happened?' _he wondered. Leo made his way over and the two moved out of Penny's earshot, conversing in low voices.

"One of the sisters must have changed the past because Penny clearly never made the change from flower child to demon hunter." He informed his father quietly. They glanced over to where Penny was dancing with Wyatt, half-humming a rendition of "We Shall Not Be Moved" to the blonde toddler. He fought off the memory of his mother singing the same song to the two brothers when they were really young, rationalising that it had never happened. He tried to hold on to his sense of self, realising that if he believed his own memories he could end up just as much of a pacifist as his great-grams clearly was.

"Clearly." Leo commented to Chris' earlier deduction. "Think the girls can fix the timeline and get back here?" Chris noted the slime oozing its way up the back door, obviously attempting to trap them. He stifled the urge to bang his head off the kitchen counter.

'_One problem at a time, please! There's a limit to how much multitasking I can do in a day!'_

"I don't know. But this thing is trying to back us into a corner." Chris told Leo, re-alerting the blonde man to the fact that the past wasn't their only problem. He quickly came up with a solution, praying that it would work. "Take Wyatt and Joan Baez here into the conservatory. I'll get what we need to fight it off." Leo nodded, ushering his grandmother-in-law and baby son out of the kitchen. Chris grabbed a blender and went to follow them, trying to avoid the goo coating the door between the two rooms. He headed back and forth with different appliances, stacking them onto the table as Leo plugged them in and Grams kept Wyatt busy. Several times he heard her talking to the baby, telling him that maybe the slime wasn't so bad and should they go to try and comfort it?

"Don't you dare." Leo warned the hippy, plugging an extension cord into the wall. "That's my son you're trying to befriend a demon with." Chris hesitated, the beginnings of a theory stirring in his mind.

'_What if this was what happened to my Wyatt? Grams' teaching my mom to love and respect all demons started him in thinking they weren't so bad?'_ He tried to shake off the thought, reminding himself that this had never really happened in his life. He needed to get back to the job at hand. He headed into the kitchen to retrieve the kettle. Coming back in, he was struck by a sudden irrational thought. Unable to suppress it, he asked Leo curiously

"What do you think about the name Bob?"

"What?" The Elder looked confused.

"For the slime." Chris clarified. "Penny thought it needed a name, and I just thought, what about Bob? Though maybe we should ask it first?" Penny, overhearing, smiled at Chris.

"I think that's a brilliant idea! I'll ask him now!"

"What? Penny, no! Chris, what are you saying?" Leo cried. Chris blinked, shaking his head.

'_Crap. This is not good. You've gotta snap yourself out of this, you idiot! Wyatt's in danger, and I'm naming a blob? This memory thing is really getting to me!'_ He shook his head again.

"Ok, they really need to get back here. Penny's memories aren't the only one changing, my life's gone different too. If they don't sort out the past soon, you're gonna have a pacifist me on your hands. Then we'll be screwed." He told Leo. The Elder looked confused, but nodded. Chris went back into the kitchen to get the coffee-maker.

* * *

"Why isn't it attacking?" Leo asked sometime later, as Chris surveyed the mass of kitchen appliances on the table, biting his thumb. "It's like it cornered us and now it's just waiting."

'_I think we need the toaster oven.'_ Chris mused, voicing as much to Leo. The elder grabbed the oven and hauled it over to the table.

"You know, that's a disaster waiting to happen." Grams commented. Chris repressed the urge to agree with her, and another telling him to yell "No duh!"

"That's the idea." He informed Penny. "You saw how the slime reacted to electricity. Well, if we can get it to attack this pile, maybe we can get to zap it." He hypothesised. Leo looked for room on the power board where all the appliances were plugged in.

"If I can find a place to plug it in." he commented.

'_Maybe we've got too much?'_ Chris wondered.

"No offence, you know, but my dear Allen would have taken the path of peaceful resistance. Have you tried talking to the slime?" Penny suggested, obviously still keen on the Bob idea.

"No, I haven't, and you shouldn't either." Leo warned. He turned to Chris.

'_Why do I think I know what's coming?'_

"But if you're up to some light conversation, maybe you wanna tell me what happens to Wyatt in the future." The Elder said lightly.

'_Oh, that's why.'_

"Uh, nice try." Chris smirked, refusing to open his mouth for anything other than that. Leo looked annoyed, but turned back to the extension and plugging the toaster oven in.

"Got it." He said triumphantly.

'_Cool. That might be enou –'_ the power went out, leaving them standing in the dark with no protection. Chris could only think of two words for the situation.

"Damn it!"

"I told you, boys, violence is not the answer to anything." Grams tutted. Chris ignored her, knowing that if he didn't he would probably find himself agreeing with her.

"Where's the fuse box?" he asked his father.

'_I wonder if he still remembers. It's not like he's been here a lot lately.'_ He knew where it was himself, of course. But appearances were everything.

"It's in the basement. Find a flashlight in the laundry room." Leo informed him, and Chris was only mildly disappointed that he hadn't forgotten.

'_Maybe the air up there isn't lacking in too much oxygen after all.'_ He left the dining room to grab a flashlight from the laundry room.

'_Right where it always is.'_ He opened the door to the basement slowly and cautiously stood at the top, pointing the flashlight downwards.

'_Crap. Why can't life ever be easy?'_ he thought as he surveyed the sea of emerald sludge at the bottom of the stairs.

"Leo!" he shouted, dashing out of the basement and shutting the door, leaning against it. His father ran in quickly, obviously worried about leaving Wyatt alone with Penny.

"What? What is it?" he questioned.

"The slime, in the basement feeding on Nexus." He panted.

'_Damn. He didn't catch me just saying Nexus, did he? They still don't refer to it as a person. They say 'the', don't they?'_ Obviously Leo missed the slip.

"How big was it?" he asked. Chris shot a glance at him and slapped the flashlight in his palm. He watched Leo's face as he opened the door and surveyed the mass below.

"Big." Leo commented.

'_Well done Sherlock.'_

"Yeah. Big." Chris agreed.

* * *

"If the demon comes at us, I'll try and hold it off with this." Chris explained to Leo, holding up two exposed electrical wires.

'_It should work, I think there's enough power left in them for the moment.'_ He missed his great-grandmother heading towards the basement door until he heard her voice and Leo's yell.

"Don't be afraid of us. We won't hurt you."

"Penny, get back!" Chris turned too late, catching a glimpse of Penny being grabbed by the magical energy-feeder.

"What the hell! Dammit! Leo, go get Wyatt somewhere safe! Right now!" Chris barked, slamming the door closed. Leo nodded and ran to the dining room with his young son. Chris grabbed the wires and surveyed the door, hoping his plan would work. The Elder came back in a few minutes later. Chris was leaning against the door, trying to hold it closed as it bucked against his back.

'_I am never going to ride a bucking bronco. Who needs thrills? Give me the quiet life!'_ Leo came over to help him, steadying the door as he spoke.

"Wyatt's secured in the living room. There's no sign of the demon in the rest of the house." Chris breathed a sigh of relief.

'_Good. That's what I thought it would do.'_

"I figured it was distracting us before so he could feed on Nexus." He told Leo, before biting his lip momentarily.

'_Damn, slipped up again. Did he catch it?'_

"What about Penny? Is she...?" Leo asked.

"I don't know." Chris replied.

'_Thank God for the obliviousness of Elders.'_ He caught sight of the slime creeping under the door. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his two wires and zapped it. Another chunk of slime crept under the door and he zapped it again.

"I can't keep up with it, we've gotta get out." He told Leo. The Elder shook his head stubbornly.

"No, we have to keep fighting. It's what Penny would want us to do."

"What Penny would want us to do is try 'the path of peaceful resistance'. And need I remind you that I'm on the edge of heading that way myself, Leo? We have to get Wyatt out of here!"

"That wasn't the real Penny and you know it. And you can fight the slime and keep yourself as yourself at the same time, Chris. This is important!"

"Alright." Chris sighed, zapping the slime again almost absently as he considered his father. He stood up wordlessly and leaned his back against the door. Leo smiled at him gratefully. A few minutes later, he had seemingly changed his mind and was urging Chris to take Wyatt and leave.

"Get out of here, go!"

"Not without you." Chris told him.

'_Wow. Role reversal. Guess I'm more like him than I thought.'_

"This thing's gonna swallow you whole." Leo argued.

"Most likely." Chris admitted.

'_Why does he care anyway? Just because I can't keep my memories together doesn't make me helpless!'_ As he thought this, his memories swirled into place again. The real ones took the place of what he had though to be true for the last while, as he glanced up in relief.

'_They're back. They've fixed it.'_ He thought, just as Piper, Phoebe and Paige appeared in a swirl of lights.

"Stand back, fellas." Piper warned. He and Leo scrambled to obey, clearing the way as Paige recited a quick spell.

"Drawing on the power of three, destroy this evil entity." A light shone through the basement door and the slime disappeared.

'_That…was almost anti-climatic.'_ Chris though wryly.

"Where's Wyatt?" Piper asked.

"He's in the living room." Chris answered, jerking his head out the door.

"What about Grams?" Phoebe enquired, not seeing her grandmother anywhere. Leo and Chris exchanged a sad glance.

"She didn't make it." Leo started. As he spoke, the basement door opened, smoke pouring out. Grams walked out, coughing.

"Nonsense." She exclaimed briskly. "You can't damage an old war horse like me. I'm already dead."

'_Oh yeah. Whoops, forgot about that.'_Chris thought, as Phoebe exclaimed and went forward to hug her grandmother. He leaned against the kitchen island counter as Wyatt cried, Piper leaving with a smile to comfort him.

"Hey there, sun god." Paige said mischievously to Leo, who laughed uncomfortably. Chris mouthed 'sun god?' under his breath, before shaking his head.

'_I don't think I really want to know.'_ He realised, as Leo pleaded for Paige to keep the name to herself.

"Hey, I wanna thank you two for not giving up the fight." Grams commented, coming over to the two. "I'm really proud of you boys. You did good."

Despite himself, the comment warmed Chris up immensely. They were all alive, his memories were back in place, he wasn't a pacifist hippy, and Great-Grams approved of him.

'_Life is good.'_

**AnimeAlexis:** I am actually quite pleased with myself. All three of my stories updated on the same day? Brilliant. And this took far too long. Review please!Oh! And I redid the last chapter, cos I didn't proofread the last time.


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